Invoking the specter of Southern violations of the voting rights of African Americans, the Detroit Branch NAACP urged Gov. Rick Snyder not to appoint an emergency financial manager but instead work on a partnership with the city to fix Detroit’s financial crisis.

“We do not need an emergency manager here -- Detroit needs individuals who can manage its emergency,” the Rev. Wendell Anthony, the chapter’s president, said at a news conference at the group’s New Center headquarters this morning.

“We urge the state to be our partner,” Anthony said. “We do not call upon the state to be our overseer.”

Anthony, flanked by members of the NAACP’s board and other community leaders, said Detroit is not the only community in financial trouble, noting that the state has battled back billion-dollar budget shortfalls and the United States now has $16 trillion in debt. Yet no one has suggested short-changing voter rights to resolve those financial problems, he said.

“Has Michigan become the new Mississippi of our day?” Anthony said.

He questioned how an emergency manager could be expected to make change in Detroit without the help of elected officials and existing management, saying it would take a manager “18 months to find out what time it is.”

He also noted that state voters last November repealed Public Act 4, the former emergency manager law that gave the state the right to appoint emergency managers with broad powers to restructure city government, bypass elected local officials, close departments, cut pay and benefits and sell city assets.

He also recalled the warning former Secretary of State Colin Powell gave to then President George Bush that if the U.S. invaded Iraq, the U.S. would then “own” responsibility for fixing that country. If Snyder appoints an emergency financial manager, Anthony said, the state will own responsibility for bringing jobs to the city, restoring public safety, fixing education and streetlights and other critical issues facing Detroit.

“None of us are suggesting we don’t want to partner with the state,” Anthony said. “What we don’t want is for the state to come in and say, ‘This is how you’ve got to do it.’ ”

Snyder appears to be just days away from announcing his decision on whether he will appoint an emergency financial manager for Detroit, which is nearing collapse under more than $14 billion in long-term liabilities and could add $100 million to its accumulated $327-million deficit. A city pension analysis revealed by the Free Press this morning also suggests Detroit’s pension debts could far exceed what had been previously reported, as the number of retirees far exceeds the number of city workers able to pay into the system.

Though Snyder may announce his decision later this week, he has not said when he might appoint an emergency financial manager or who that person might be.

The news conference was held this morning after Mayor Dave Bing met with NAACP members for a regular monthly closed-door meeting of the group’s allies. Bing did not speak to reporters afterward. Meanwhile, city council agreed to meet in closed session later today to discuss an analysis of the state’s review team report. The analysis was prepared by the council’s research and fiscal analysis division.